Chapter 42 — The Fractured Dawn
For a long time, there was only silence.
Not the kind of silence that came from peace — but the hollow, ringing void left behind after the world screamed and finally ran out of breath.
Ethan opened his eyes to blinding white light. For a moment, he thought he was still inside Elysium — that digital void where memories bled into illusion. But as the haze cleared, he saw the twisted wreckage of the cradle rising around him — all fractured steel and dying embers.
He was alive. Somehow.
His ears still rang from the explosion that had torn the sky apart. When he tried to move, pain lanced through his shoulder — a reminder that survival hadn’t come cheap.
“Ethan!”
The voice pulled him from the fog. He turned, blinking through smoke, and saw Mira rushing tow
